Hydraulic Excavator Controller for Automatic Leveling Transition
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Solution Overview
Problem
The transition from returning work to leveling work in hydraulic excavators often results in reduced work efficiency and operability due to issues with bucket posture adjustments and automatic operation thresholds, leading to unnecessary boom lowering operations and potential discomfort for operators.
Innovation Solution
A controller system that calculates arm tip and claw tip differences to determine when to execute excavation or leveling work controls, ensuring smooth transitions by maintaining bucket posture relative to the target surface, thereby optimizing work efficiency and operability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the threshold for automatic bucket operation is set to enable leveling work, then work efficiency is improved, but unnecessary automatic operations occur during returning work, reducing operability
Solution Approach 1:
The control system dynamically adjusts the threshold value for automatic bucket operation based on the current work state. When in returning work mode, a higher threshold is used to prevent unnecessary automatic operations, while during leveling work, a lower threshold enables efficient automatic operation. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction between productivity and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the operational parameters (threshold values) based on the detected work mode. By modifying the threshold parameter according to whether the system is in returning work or leveling work mode, it achieves both high operability during returning work and high productivity during leveling work without compromise.
2Ease of operation
If the bucket automatic operation is activated during returning work, then transition to leveling work is simplified, but operator comfort is reduced due to unwanted automatic operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of the work mode before activating automatic bucket operation. By preliminarily determining whether the current state is returning work or leveling work, the system prevents unwanted automatic operations that would cause operator discomfort, while still enabling smooth transitions when appropriate.
Solution Approach 2:
The control system continuously monitors operational parameters and provides feedback to determine the current work mode. This feedback mechanism ensures that automatic bucket operation is only activated when necessary, maintaining operator comfort while enabling smooth transitions to leveling work mode.
3Productivity
If a low threshold is used for automatic operation, then leveling work efficiency is maximized, but unnecessary operations during returning work reduce overall productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the threshold parameter based on the detected work mode. During returning work, a higher threshold prevents time-wasting automatic operations, while during leveling work, a lower threshold maximizes efficiency. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between overall productivity and leveling work efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
By changing the threshold parameter according to work mode, the system optimizes performance for each specific task. This parameter adaptation ensures that time is not wasted during returning work while maintaining high efficiency during leveling work, thereby maximizing overall productivity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is a hydraulic excavator including a controller that can control a work device by utilizing an excavation work control for causing a claw tip of a bucket to move along a predetermined target surface and a leveling work control for causing the bucket to move along the target surface while maintaining the posture of the bucket with respect to the target surface, in which: the controller, based on posture data and size data on a work device and position data on the target surface, calculates an arm tip difference Dva that is the distance from the tip of an arm to the target surface; and the controller executes the leveling work control in a case of the calculated arm tip difference being equal to or less than a predetermined threshold dv1, there being no input of a bucket operation to an operation lever, and there being an input of an arm operation to the operation lever, and otherwise executes the excavation work control.